HELENA-WEST HELENA - A neighborhood here is on police lock down, all over a $6, or maybe $8, debt.

The feud started earlier this week, when a man recently released from jail refused to pay the money back to a neighbor, residents and authorities said.

A group of men jumped the ex-inmate and fired guns into the air and into homes, mostly after dark, residents and authorities said, prompting some people to sleep on the floors for fear of being struck by stray bullets. The man and his buddies retaliated - with guns, as well - turning the already high crime neighborhood into what residents said sounded for a few nights like a combat zone.

As a consequence, Mayor James Valley on Thursday called for a lockdown of the roughly 10-block neighborhood northwest of City Hall, in what was formerly West Helena.